THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
STAFF SENATE
(NORMAN CAMPUS)
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Chair Joan Koos called the meeting to order at 1:37 p.m. in the
Scholars Room of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Officers present — Joan Koos, Chair; Betty Love,
Chair-Elect; Debbie Copp, Immediate Past Chair; Karla Woodfork, Recording
Secretary
Staff present — Barbara Perry, Administrative Coordinator;
Shanika Bivines, Administrative Assistant
Representatives present — Hourly Employees Council: Pam
Shoopman, Carolyn Irons, Debbie Blevins, Larry Craig, Ed Fontaine, Patsy
Montoya, Diana Fitzpatrick; Informational Staff Association: Sophia Morren,
Kevin Jarnigan, Susan Lauterbach, Elaine Bradshaw, Annette Schwiebert;
Organizational Staff Council: Tina Ledgerwood, Susan Hughes, Matt Berry;
Administrative Staff Council: Sue-Anna Miller, Deb Wollenberg, Deborah Marsh
Representatives absent — Hourly Employees Council: Brian
Candelaria, Karen Stark, David Houck, Robert Murphy; Informational Staff Association:
Chris Cook; Organizational Staff Council: Linda McCarty, Michelle Coroiu,
Jannie Porter; Administrative Staff Council: none
Guests present —Nick Kelly, Human Resources; Stacey Barry,
Administrative Affairs; Joann Nilsson, Chair, Staff Professional Development
Committee; Susan Grossman, Co-chair, Communications Committee; Cathy Brister,
Chair, OU Staff Week Committee; Tracy Reinke, Chair, Awards Committee
CHAIR'S COMMUNICATIONS
Chair Joan Koos said she had met with Vice President for Executive
and Administrative Affairs Nick Hathaway.
She said although the administration is very concerned about the high
cost of utilities and the rising cost of insurance, there may still be hope for
a salary increase this year.
WeÕll know more as things develop later in the year.
Joan called attention to the memo that had been sent out across
campus calling for nominations for the staff merit awards program. She announced that President Boren had
generously doubled the value of
each of the staff merit awards.
She encouraged everyone to nominate staff for the awards. She said it
was gratifying simply to be nominated. She said we all work with someone who is deserving of
an award and although it takes time to fill out the form, it means so much to
the people who win an award.
She requested to be informed of any departments or areas that had not
gotten the memo that was sent out.
The deadline to submit a nomination is noon, Friday, February 10.
Joan then announced that she had learned of a new staff award
geared toward housekeeping staff that would be given by the President. It will be an annual award and will be
awarded during staff week at the Awards Ceremony along with the rest of the
staff merit awards. The name of
the award will be the Molly and David Boren Award for Excellence in
Housekeeping. Joan said any staff or faculty member could nominate an eligible
staff member for this award.
Sue-Anna Miller added that sometimes, housekeeping staff work odd hours
and people might not have an individualÕs last name (needed for the nomination
form). Sue-Anna said she could be
contacted with the building and shift information, and she would be able to
provide their identity.
[The call for nominations for this award will be going out shortly.]
ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES OF DECEMBER 21, 2005
Matt Berry moved for acceptance of the minutes of the December 21,
2005, meeting. The motion was seconded and the minutes were accepted as
written.
UPDATE
ON BENEFITS BY NICK KELLY, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, HUMAN RESOURCES
Assistant HR Director Nick Kelly covered the following topics.
Short term disability insurance: Nick said they had the results from the
RFP that had been sent out about six months ago. He explained that the basic problem is that many of OUÕs
employees who have been here for years have a lot of leave because OUÕs leave
program is very generous. Few of
these people want to buy short-term disability insurance. All of the companies except one
required OU to have a minimum participation, around 25%, which Nick said was
not going to happen. One company,
AFLAC, offered a program that had some restrictions on it. Some individuals with pre-existing
conditions may not qualify and itÕs not cheap. But Nick said AFLAC would come to the EBC meetings sometime
in the next couple of months and give a presentation, and support for their
program would be measured.
Oklahoma TeachersÕ Retirement System: Nick said that in 2004 the Legislature passed a law
allowing new employees who came to OU who were mandated to join OTRS, to make a
one-time, irrevocable choice between OTRS and the UniversityÕs optional
retirement plan, which is the straight 9% salary defined contribution. It will also allow, pending IRS
approval, for all of our current employees who are mandated into OTRS, which is
everybody in a salaried position before July of 2004, to exercise their one
time option, to get out of OTRS and join the UniversityÕs optional plan, or
stay with what they have - which is stay with OTRS and the 15% or 8% defined
contribution, depending on when they were hired. Nick said the IRS has placed OU on their expedited track, so OU should have a decision
from them sometime this summer. If
that happens there are two things OU is asking: (1) Can people get out of OTRS? Nick said we are about 99.9% sure they will say yes. And, (2) If you do get out of OTRS, can
you take that money and roll it into the UniversityÕs defined contribution
plan? Nick said they were about 95% sure they will say yes to that. The other
option people could have is to leave OTRS, increase their benefits and leave
the money that they have in OTRS, so they can collect some benefit at their
normal retirement age, probably 62 for most people. You could have that option as well if the IRS allows all of
this. Nick said they have been
working behind the scenes trying to figure out how to get people the right
information so they can make this one-time decision. New employees have a very simple calculator on the web to do
the calculation, but for those employees who have been here for more than 10 or
20 years, they have a lot of baggage to start with. You have to look at it to try to determine what is best for
yourself on an individual basis.
Nick said they are working to try to develop a calculator that is going
to have your OTRS information in there, and then you will be able to pull that
information to figure out what your OTRS benefits might be, then figure what
your optional retirement plan benefit might be. You may have a lot of assumption to work with. You have up
to a year from the time the IRS responds to make this decision, and it is
irrevocable.
Health
insurance: Nick said as we go into our second year with Aetna and begin
dialogue with the EBC to talk about the future of our health care, there are
several issues that are being discussed.
Nick said we are different than a lot of other universities in the Big
XII. Only OU and OSU donÕt
make a contribution to dependent care.
He said it hurts us in our recruiting because potential employees with families
have to pay a larger amount for family coverage than they would at another
school. For employees who arenÕt
supporting a family itÕs a good thing.
How that all balances out is unknown. Pondering whether or not we would consider changing
health plans again, Nick said we would go back to the state plan. He said we did an RFP about two years
ago and the market hasnÕt changed very much. He said we hurt ourselves by continuing to change to
different companies. He said, ŌSo
itÕs really going to come down to whether or not we want a long relationship
with Aetna or whether we want to go back to the state plan. Which is better, at this point we donÕt
know. We do know if we want to do
anything different with our health care or change the plan design, we can not
do it with the state plan. We have
security and stability there, but we have no influence over what the plan looks
like. If we remain with the
private insurance we have some degree of influence on what will happen to the
UniversityÕs health care.Ķ
Online
enrollment: Nick said they had started a project on Norman Campus that
they hoped would lead to online enrollment this year. He said it would do many things internally and improve the
ability of customers to go online, use the web and enroll online. They are hopeful to have it ready for
the November health insurance enrollment.
Nick said the first year they would have to maintain some ability to
have paper copies, but the Health Sciences Center just completed this project
on their campus and without mandate, over 80% of their people enrolled
online. It was his hope to have
90% online enrollment within the first few years.
Nick
then answered questions. He was
asked why the formulary changes every year and why generics are now on the non-preferred
list. Nick said the
formulary, which is the list of preferred drugs, changes from year to
year. One of the reasons for this
is that drugs go off of patent and then generic drugs become available. The insurance companies decide to make
the generic part of the formulary because of the lower cost. They will have
generics that will vary significantly in cost. These things change over time for a variety of reasons. For
example, on Medicare part B, they wonÕt pay for the cost of certain drugs. They have their own list of preferred
drugs. Nick was asked
whether the patient should start working with their doctor or the pharmacist if
they encounter a problem getting the proper medication. Nick suggested starting with the
pharmacist.
OTHER COMMUNICATIONS
Hourly Employees Council: President Pam Shoopman reported that HEC met on
January 11. Administrative
Coordinator Barbara Perry announced that the letter calling for staff award
nominations had gone out. Blue
Belle will donate ice cream for the Hourly Employees ice cream social again
this year and the group is making arrangements for cookies that will be
served.
Organizational Staff Council: President Tina Ledgerwood reported that OSC met on
January 12. Steve Smith from
Purchasing spoke to the group about PeopleSoft. Some changes regarding the requisition process will be
coming about soon, probably in March.
The group selected its Awards Selection Committee and discussed
bingo. Tina announced that Barbara
Bledsoe had tickets for the Annual FirefighterÕs Chili Supper on January 26th
for $4, $5 at the door.
Administrative Staff Council: President Sue-Anna Miller reported that ASC had laid
the groundwork for selecting their nominating committee for their Awards
Selection Committee.
Informational Staff Association: President Sophia Morren reported
that ISA met January 11. They had
a short, but productive meeting so they could tour the Journalism
Building. They filled several
vacant officer positions. Sophia
introduced their new Vice President/President-elect Kevin Jarnigan. Their new Web Masters are Connie
Smith and Dan Hough; Activities Coordinator is Debra Gentis; and Awards
Selection Committee Chair is Ron McCarty.
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
Awards Committee: Chair Tracy Reinke reported that the
Awards Ceremony is set for Wednesday, April 26. Clarke Stroud will be the emcee and President Boren is
scheduled to speak. This year, the
retiree gifts will be a personalized plaque. Tracy said everything is going smoothly.
Communications Committee: Co-Chair Susan Grossman said that she, Tony Robertson, and
Susan Hughes were co chairs of the Communications Committee. The group meets the first Friday of the
month and is working to schedule a town hall meeting with President Boren. Other projects the committee is working
on include a university-wide electronic events calendar that will include
information for OU and the Norman Community so people will know about events
happening in this area. Along that
line, the committee is also working to develop a university-wide departmental
information site that will list areas of expertise and contact
information.
OU Staff Week Committee: Chair Cathy Brister said Staff Week would be April 24-28.
She said the Field House was not available for the events this year so the
events were scheduled at various locations across campus. Bingo is in the Santee Lounge in the
Stadium for the morning session and the afternoon session is at Couch. The ice cream social is in the Ballroom
on Tuesday in conjunction with the Craft Fair. Wednesday will feature the Awards Ceremony in the Ballroom
and the Art Show will take place in the afternoon in the University Club. Thursday is the biggest change because
the Health Fair will take place in the Forum on South Campus. On Friday, well have the Food
Fair in the Armory. The Craft Fair
and T-shirt flyers will be going out shortly. Cathy said there would be some changes
to the T-shirts this year. Three
different styles will be offered and each style will only have one color. The
T-shirts will be: a regular
T-shirt in a denim blue; a womenÕs
T-shirt in pink; and a long sleeve T-shirt in pine or army green. Cathy said sweatshirts would not be
offered during the spring.
A
suggestion was made to offer a better quality sweatshirt with a better zipper,
albeit at a higher cost, when the sweatshirts are sold again. Cathy made note of the suggestion.
Staff Professional Development Committee: Chair
Joan Nilsson reported that a report was linked to the agenda. 28 staff had applied for funding to the
program. Joann said the
committee reviewed one of the policies because they found that a lot of people
are presenting at conferences as well as attending. If they are going to attend the entire conference the committee
thought they should not be denied funding because they are also presenting,
which is part of professional development. However, the guidelines say that if they are a presenter at
the conference they should be denied.
So the committee reviewed that policy and determined that if they were
actually attending the conference that they would go ahead and approve it.
CORRESPONDENCE
The following correspondence was linked to the agenda:
Note from President Boren concerning Boyd House sweatshirts. Joan thanked Debbie Copp for her
idea and generosity.
REPORTS
The following reports were linked to the agenda:
Staff Senate Foundation account report.
Fall 2005 semester reports from University and campus councils,
committees and boards.
Report from Staff Professional Development Committee.
ADJOURNMENT
As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 2:22
p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Perry
Administrative Coordinator
Karla Woodfork
Recording Secretary